Doing the Harlem Shake... and Blue Lip Feel

Afternoon,

I came back to Sheffield from a friend's birthday in Birmingham last weekend to be greeted with a new craze the likes of which has never been seen before. I'm not usually one for crazes but this one for reasons unknown has absolutely fucking encapsulated me.

For those of you unfamiliar with what a Harlem Shake is, I've linked one below. It's began as a mix supposedly created by a guy called Bauer who's this week been arguing with Azaelia Banks ('I guess this **** getting eaten') over copyright. Turns out she's still using the song anyway and I imagine Bauer's getting loads of coverage out of it so everybody wins it seems. The idea is that for the first ten seconds one person in a room of multiple people starts dancing and then when the drop arrives through the magical use of edit everyone in the room joins in in a variety of different and sometimes hilarious contexts.

Most of the ones I've watched have either involved morph suits, or masses of rugby lads suddenly being naked and forcing their heads against each other. Whatever you're into, there are seemingly hundreds doing the rounds on YouTube, including this one of a loan washing machine- intriguing stuff.

Linked at the bottom is the current world record holder, done by students at UCL. At last week's Tuesday Club, Sheffield resident Toddla T decided to give the Shake his own little twist and the result was pure quality, definitely one of the best I've seen.

Lord only knows why I've taken such an active interest in this most simple of crazes but there you go, it's been on my mind all week and simply had to be put in writing. 

I also thoroughly enjoyed this little meme. Cats seem to have a say on everything these days.

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My band of the week may or may not like the Harlem Shake, I really wouldn't have a clue. Blue Lip Feel practise traditional rock 'n' roll and do it with ease. Formed in Sheffield a few years ago, they've released two EP's, both of which have been well received, and their name has, in recent times, been doing the rounds at venues around Sheffield, Leeds and the surrounding towns (if anyone caught them at the Barnsley Lycorum last night then it's likely you had a cracking time). They can also be seen supporting NME favourites Tribes of late which is no mean feat, although for me they could be considered just as good as the Camden four-piece.

They've released two EP's in the past couple of years, 'Shallow Getaway' in September 2011 and 'Glitterbox' in July 2012. 'Glitterbox' being the main material they're currently drawing from on tour and the EP I've been listening to the most in the past week or so. 

Lead single 'Of The New Kind' is raunchy and delivers a startling amount of attitude. Guitars are almost reminiscent of Queens Of The Stone Age and Oliver Tooze on vocals is as powerful as anything. You definitely get the feeling they know exactly what they're capable of, don't try and overdo it but also feel no need to work within any manner of limitation. The self-titled single 'Glitterbox' doesn't stray too much from what the other tracks off the EP deliver but the chorus is ever-so-slightly more endearing and the ensuing riff in the final minutes is probably the highlight of the record.

Critics are just as complimentary as I'm being, Counterfeit called the EP, 'a beautifully balanced mixture of all the instruments' (questionable grammar and writing style it must be said) and Sound of Steel referred to them as 'one of the most ferocious live acts of the city'. The reaction of the local music press doesn't particularly surprise me as this is just the kind of music their doesn't seem to be enough of. If you can deliver decent rock music and be loved on a cult level then you're definitely doing something right.

As I implied earlier, Blue Lip Feel are currently on a mini-tour of the North and 'Glitterbox' is well worth a listen. Kind of wish they'd cheer up a bit though.

That's all for now, apologies for the hurried nature of this post but dissertation stress appears to be causing me regular heart palpitations.

Max

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#LaptopProblems... and East Park Reggae Collective

Good afternoon,

Many apologies for my absence last week but I was otherwise indisposed, or as my housemate far more bluntly put it, I was on my period. The reason for this sudden rush of female hormones (just to clarify for people who are reading this for the first time I am in fact male) was totally laptop-related, hence the lack of blog post.

I was intelligent enough to leave a half open water bottle in a bag containing my laptop and various other important studenty paraphernalia and everything got covered. Thinking my laptop was destined for the scrap heap, I followed the sound advice of a friend and popped it in the boiler cupboard for 48 hours and hey presto it's miraculously fixed, albeit with a whopping great water mark in the middle of the screen. I just want to add at this juncture that I point blank refused to follow the advice of just about everybody in the world and cover it in FUCKING RICE. Next thing we know we'll be using cooked pasta to cure broken legs. If rice does in fact work then I'm highly apologetic.

In other news... The Pope retired. This is a piece of information that isn't exactly going to set my surrounding world alight with sadness but has instead been met with a flurry of paedo/ex-Benedict jokes. Also, I've been spending the week telling anyone who can be bothered to listen that, as a youngster, our Mr Benedict was in the Hitler Youth so I reckon the papal system could maybe do with a bit of a reform before we end up with one of Stalin's grandsons or the like.

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Been meaning to cover these guys for a while. I first saw this raunchy reggae troop on a freezing night at Sheffield's Tuesday Club around about two years ago and they made a cracking impression on me. General interaction with the crowd is fantastic, they got us moving like crazy and their highly-rated mix of old-school reggae fused with modern dub was of the highest quality. The reggae-dub mix is especially notable in 'Ruffneck For Real', a tune which packs an absolute punch if ever I've heard one as old-school reggae slides breezily into fast-paced dub then smoothly back to reggae.

Forming in Leeds in 2009, EPRC's rise to cult Yorkshire fame has been quick and painless and they have released a stream of records since. With ten official members, including Joel Borkin now we're talkin' (the man with the world's craziest nickname) on 'Sound Science', a word has to be said of vocalist Anna Stott whose quirky voice with a Jamaican tang shines through on each track and colours each with a slightly different feel. She's undoubtedly one of the best female vocalists I've heard for quite a while.

Modern reggae that isn't shit is incredibly difficult to come by so it's an absolute testament to these guys that they've achieved so much. The critics are full of praise, Time Out gave EPRC some seriously high praise, 'Could well be the first band since The Specials to bring reggae to the massive' while Rockers Revolt described them as 'Sensational'. What they have to say about themselves via Facebook is almost as impressive. Speaking of their live shows they claim, 'No heart is left untouched. No foot remains unmoved'. Having experienced one of their live shows, I am in total agreement.

Have a butchers at their soundcloud and you won't be disappointed. They regularly tour around Yorkshire and the North-East and you could probably get a ticket for under a tenner (I get the feeling profit matters very little for these aficionados). I've linked 'Ruffneck for Real at the bottom along with another of my favourites, 'Build a Wall'. Soundcloud exhibits a far wider range of their stuff.

This photo makes them look pretty fucking cool.

Away from Yorkshire, I've been rather pre-occupied with The Foals new album 'Holy Fire' this week. Foals have now in my mind officially established themselves in the Max Goldbart top 5 with a record showcasing their sheer musical ability- well worth a listen. Also, swinging back to Yorkshire, Hot Since 82 who I covered a few weeks ago has just released 'Hot Jams Volume 2' and had a 15 minute takeover of Pete Tong's Radio 1 show the other day. Watch out for this house connoisseurs' continued rise to stardom.

Until next week (save for me chucking another gallon of water over my laptop and experiencing a speedy build up of oestrogen).

Max

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High Speed Fail...and Screaming Maldini/Temple Of Coke

Konnichi Wa,

I was kind of horrified by reports on Monday that the government are planning to inject billions into a new high speed rail system known as HS2- set to be completed in 2032. It's the most ridiculously British of announcements- a gigantic audacious plan set to be completed far off into the future and obviously involving trains.

Just thinking about what my life will be like in 2032 makes my stomach turn- married, kids and an annoyingly steady job; scary stuff.

The building works aren't even set to start until 2017 ( so why announce it now??) and already villages stretching from the Midlands to Northumberland are in uproar at the thought of year upon year of road works and eyesores.Alongside this, even though HS2 may well halve journey times, the stations which make up its route are miles outside the cities they're stopping at. The train to Sheffield from Birmingham will stop at Meadowhall, half an hour away from the city centre, therefore rendering the faster journey time virtually obsolete unless you're taking a train to a smaller city a hundred miles away just for a spot of shopping.

Our economy is by no means stable and I reckon the government would do better to be pumping money into unemployment schemes so that recently-graduated university students aren't all competing for ludicrously over subscribed graduate jobs. We take up enough of our time moaning about trains as it is; the building of the HS2 would leave us Brits with virtually nothing else to discuss up until at least 2032.

I might have mentioned last week that I've finally had a request for a band so without further ado I thought I'd follow up on the request which oddly enough came from a metal head on an alternative/indie band... here it coooomes.

Screaming Maldini have been present on the Yorkshire music scene for quite the while now but it's only recently that they've really hit the heights. Their steep rise in popularity can basically be attributed to the release in October of  epic release, 'Summer Somewhere'. The song is reminiscent of Arcade Fire at their absolute best. Multi-instrumental, multi-gendered bands throughout the world are currently undergoing a revolution of aiming to be as close to Arcade Fire as they humanly can be but this single has really achieved the goal. Gina Walters vocals are fantastic and are backed up by crooning backing vocals from the rest of the group alongside a wholesome piano riff which keeps the track steady. It's now been re-mixed twice, had 12,000 YouTube views on its excellent video (shot on location in the Peak District of all places) and been described by the fussy Guardian music section as, 'The poppiest, most energetic sound'. Fun fact- one of the remixes was by Matt Berry a.k.a. the boss from the later series of the IT Crowd.

The band are made up of Nick, Gina, Annie, Tim, Jonny and Ben who I believe are all part of the Maldini clan and are soon to be releasing their self-titled debut album and embarking on a UK tour. Things really are on the up and considering that these guys look like the nicest people on earth and have worked their fucking socks off to get where they are, I reckon they just about deserve it. I must confess I'm not a huge fan of their older stuff, mostly off their 2010 EP, but it's highly quirky and definitely worth giving a listen. Their description on twitter as playing 'orchestral indie' rings truer with every play.They released a new single, 'The Awakening' yesterday afternoon which I've linked at the bottom and they have a competition on their Facebook to win a signed copy of the album.

Here's a photo of them at their absolute peak of masculinity.

Through a friend of a friend I also came across Temple of Coke the other day. A humorous rock band from Sheffield, their cover of 'Pure Shores' provided at the bottom is particularly enjoyable. With over 6,000 YouTube views, it's wholly worth a watch. Their website exhibits some of their other stuff and it's pretty damn good.

Cheers as always for reading.

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